I really want to get back to the blog, I love this blog and feel like I have not made it a priority in my life and am really sad about that. So here we go again.... I am going to bloggity-blog. Life is so fun right now and really busy. 2019 is going to be a fun year for us which will include many vacations, an international move, my best friend's wedding and a new job for Dave. There are so many mixed emotions about this move but I will get to that in later posts. This blog is about Leo turning 5 and our recent trip to Salzburg, Austria.
My 2019 motto <3 nbsp="" p="">
Here are just a few pictures of daily life- after school cafe trips.
Here is a picture of little David and then pictures of my boys. I think Leo and Dave are such little twins.
Leo is a Lincoln Log builder extraordinaire. As soon as he builds them, Reid crawls as fast as possible and crashes them to the ground.
This past weekend was a long weekend so we headed to Salzburg, Austria. We have not been yet and I really wanted to go before we left Europe. Also when looking at the city they have a reptile zoo and since it was kind of Leo's "birthday trip" I thought that would be perfect. It is only about a 4 hour drive for us which is pretty easy peasy. We only left about 40 minutes behind schedule so that is basically on time. The vacation started with cappuccinos and brioches at Lucia's cafe and then we hit the road. We were not sure how the roads were going to be with all the snow but it ended up being a very uneventful drive. I love the drive through Austria, the mountains are so big and beautiful and I love all the little houses perched on the sides of them.
Our first stop was actually outside of Salzburg at the airport at the RedBull Hanger 7. I never knew that RedBull was from Austria. It was a really cool place and Leo loved all the airplanes and cars. Finley was a 3-year old and threw a tantrum in the middle of the place and when we got back to the car realized she was missing a shoe. I had to go back in and find the shoe.... traveling with kids is always eventful and sometimes really stressful!
How is this little man 5!! I love him to pieces, he has the most tender heart, is a GREAT big brother and loves all things reptiles/ dinosaurs.
This was when Dave was chasing Finley mid tantrum.
We then headed off to our hotel. It was a really cute family run hotel and the room was nice. After getting all checked-in we headed to the city. It was a nice stroll along the river to the old town, the weather was freezing! However, I think I was the only one that was complaining. After stopping at every single snow pile on the way, we finally made it to the old town. We headed straight to an Indian restaurant we found online and they were super nice and gave us the really cool table in the center of the restaurant. Leo loves Indian food and he was super excited to eat "buttew titten" (butter chicken). So we had a great dinner and that is when the evening started to go downhill quick. Leo said he needed to use the bathroom, so we head to the bathroom. He informs me upon entering the bathroom that he has pooped his pants! There was a stomach bug going around his school and I guess he got a little touch of it. I will spare you any details but lets just say we visited 2 different bathrooms that night, wore one of Finley's pull ups and resorted to wearing one of Reid's diapers before we got back to the hotel bathtub! As we were walking back to the hotel with Leo wearing one of Reid's diapers and riding on the front of the stroller with Finley in the stroller and it was freezing cold and dark..... all Dave and I could do was laugh. We love traveling, we love adventure but this evening was SO STRESSFUL! I am so thankful that we woke up the next morning ready to head to the Reptile Zoo and nobody else pooped in their pants that weekend!
This is waiting while Dave ran back to Starbucks looking for Finley's Minnie Mouse hat.... that we never found, super sad!
We love Indian food and the kids thought this round table was super cool.
Reid loves naan, he really just loves to eat.
We got up on Sunday, had breakfast at our hotel and then rode the bus to the Natural History Museum. The kids were excited we were riding the bus because they didn't want to walk.
Leo was in heaven as soon as we walked in and there were giant dinosaur statues. We all had a great time, the place was absolutely huge and had something for everybody. I loved it because it was cheap and it was really really warm!
Finley is currently obsessed with the Megladon movie (which is not very good and actually kind of scary but she LOVES it!). They were excited to see a Megladon mouth at the museum.
The hands on Science Lab of the museum was a lot of fun. Quinn has really become interested in Science this school year and it is really fun to watch her learn.
This was a Mozart part of the museum (he studied in Salzburg and him and Leo share a birthday) and is a booth to see how loud you could yell. Well, of course my kids were able to max out the booth, nobody was surprised by this!
He is almost 5 and is the biggest dinosaur lover around. I love how he knows all the dinosaur facts and currently his favorite is a spinosaurus.
After lunch we headed to the Augustiner Beer house, the kids complained about walking the whole way there. To their credit, Salzburg was FREEZING. The beer house was great! You get to pick out a mug (big or small) and then they fill it up with their only kind of beer. Maybe it was because we were thirsty or because we had 4 whiney children but Dave and I both drank a large jug of beer and it was delicious! After you get your beer, you walk down the hall and there are several booths that you can pick food from. Then you take your selection back to your table and enjoy. I loved the concept, everybody got to get the food they wanted and the atmosphere was very relaxed. We had a variety of different foods from hotdogs, curry brats, ribs and potatoes and schnitzel. We were so stuffed!
Playing games with the coasters.
Finley was loving it. Also there was a giant plaque of Jesus hanging on the wall watching us drink our beer. Reid had his leg kicked up on the table while I was feeding him so I think he was enjoying it.
Our last day in Salzburg was of course, The Sound of Music tour. Quinn and I had watched the movie the night before in our hotel so she was pumped! Dave wasn't feel great but he totally sucked it up and spent 4 hours driving around looking at movie sights and singing songs! Our tour guide was amazing and the tour was really fun. It was another freezing day so I was happy to be on a bus for most of the day and half way through the tour they gave us gluhwein.
It was actually really interesting and we learned so much. We have started watching the movie again (it is a REALLY long movie!) to go back and see all the "tricks" that we learned about during our tour.
We visited the church from the movie and the kids had to light a candle for Sammy.
We had a really great trip and loved Salzburg. The kids were absolute troopers on the way home and we only stopped once for Finley to use the bathroom.
I'll leave you with Reid, screaming his face off because I wouldn't hold him. He is the biggest mommas boy and sometimes I love it and sometimes I just want 4 minutes by myself. Also, our Christmas tree is still up because I don't have the energy to pack up my ornaments well since they are going to be moved across the world, so I have just been putting it off. Today Dave said, maybe we should just leave it up until the movers come and they can pack the ornaments.... and now I am thinking that idea sounds amazing.
Trips are good, Leo is 5, life is good!
